White Collar - "Breathing Space"

Title: Breathing Space
Author: TeeJay
Written for: anonymous at collarkink
Prompt: I would like to read an AU in which Neal suffers a violent panick attack in that tiny room [from 3,10], maybe triggered by some traumatic experience in his past, he honestly thought he could handle it and carry out his plan but he underestimated the trauma still lurking in the depths of his soul. Peter has no idea about it.
Genre: Gen
Characters/Pairings: Neal, Peter
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Spoilers for up to and including 3x10 'Countdown'
Summary: Peter locks Neal in a storage room to get him out of his hair for a while. What Peter doesn't know is that Neal has a problem with small spaces. AU for the storage room scene in 3x10 'Countdown'.
Author's Note: kanarek13 pointed me to this prompt last night, and it just had to be written. I was defenseless. Hasn't been beta'ed, so if you find any typos, inconsistencies or other errors, feel free to let me know so I can fix them.
Disclaimer: White Collar, its characters and its settings belong to Jeff Eastin and USA Network. And, guys? Your characters are not only welcome, they're wonderful. I'm just borrowing, I promise.

 

( Breathing Space )

I must be important!

Why? Because I have a stalker. Yay me.

Okay, well, maybe not really. You remember when I ranted about this guy on our Chris Marquette message board who kept spamming it with irrelevant posts that hardly anyone ever responded to and that kept pissing our members off (including myself)? Well, he found my LJ (even though I don't have it linked anywhere on the Marquette site) and read my ranty entry (which I probably should have f-locked -- hindsight is 20/20, right?). Then he blew a gasket in our guestbook section where he threatened he's going to speak ill about our site and our (I quote) "beloved Chris Marquette" across the internet.

*makes jazz hands* Ooooh, I'm so scared!

( Enforced f-lock is being switched ON )